Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Dir: Gareth Edwards

2016

*****

I'm a nerd. I grew up on Sci-fi and like many other millions of people, Star Wars (along with Star Trek) was everything to me. Like the rest of the world, I wanted to see what happened beyond Return of the Jedi and I like everybody else, was slightly disappointed with what George Lucas gave us in the remastering and in the origin stories. We still never knew what had happened to Luke, Han and Leia though, so there was always hope. Then, in 2015 what we all thought would never happen, happened. I then wished it had never happened and began to appreciate episodes I-III, such was my disappointment. Disney bought Star Wars, their stores moved the Mickey Mouse displays to one side and soon enough you could buy all the toys and merchandise you wanted thirty years ago. When they announced that they would be making several one-off Star Wars stories' and origin tales', I thought it would be more of the same and an extension of the cash-in - fair enough given the amount of money they had spent, I was now over it, let the kids have it, I was done. Then the trailer for Rogue One came out. I noticed it had a good few of my favourite actors in it and it looked.....authentic. After now watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, I can confirm that if I only had one word to describe it... it would be "authentic". If I had two... it would be "very happy". If I had six they would be "I'm so happy I could cry". Gareth Edwards achieved something here that neither George Lucas or JJ Abrams could in either Star Wars: Episode III -Revenge of the Sith or The Force Awakens. He has given us something new and has brought back all of the warm nostalgia of the originals. I liked pretty much all of the new elements of The Force Awakens but I think the film stumbles when handling older subjects and characters. Revenge of he Sith gets really exciting towards the end of the film but it doesn't quite make up for the two and half films that come before it. Edwards has clearly gone back to A New Hope and has looked at every tiny detail to get it right in this film. There are many people credited with the story but it was special effects supervisor John Knoll who stood up and said the concept stories being circulated early on were not of Star Wars standards before developing his own idea. It seems that the real Star Wars fans in the industry, or at least the ones that understood what made the originals so loved, were finally given the chance to create. The attention to detail is superb. If you're a casual Star Wars viewer then you should be satisfied but if you are a Star Wars nerd you will be in heaven. The references to the other films and characters are often slight, relatively subtle but always effective. It has everything you'd expect from a Star Wars film but just that little more refined. I loved the BB-8 droid from The Force Awakens but Rouge One's K-2SO is something a little different from him, or R2D2 and C3PO. Instead of playing it easy and going for cute, they looked at what worked best within the story. The story itself isn't something new either, it already existed in a way and events take place just days before where A New Hope begins and believably so. There are some very nice surprises along the way and just when you think you've seen them all, a few new ones pop up, each fitting the story perfectly and serving a purpose, rather than simply serving as nostalgic titillation. I imagine fans of the books, animated series and video games will be rather happy too. The cast is near perfect. Felicity Jones is great in the lead role and Diego Luna supports her well in what is the main male lead. Alan Tudyk ticks many boxes in voicing the film's droid and what film isn't made better by the presence of the mighty Donnie Yen? Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen fill in the big supporting roles nicely and the brilliant Ben Mendelsohn proves once again that he is the go-to guy if you want a villain played right. It's was great to see personal favorites Riz Ahmed and Daniel Mays too, they've come a long way from Shifty and their success is well earned. Jimmy Smits and Genevieve O'Reilly were very welcome additions to the story, both bridging the gaps between episodes I-III and A New Hope perfectly. Rouge One is very much a Star Wars film without trying too hard to be so. There is no 'waterfall' introduction (this is the waterfall story in a way) and each scene isn't cut by another sweeping in from the side. This is Edwards' film, something new and something the franchise desperately needed. The film does things it's own way while staying true to the Star Wars universe, which is ultimately the Star Wars way. There was a worry that this wouldn't quite feel like a real Star Wars film but I would argue that Rouge One is the most Star Wars film since The Empire Strike Back. I loved it. Seriously, by the end, I could have cried!

Godzilla

Dir: Gareth Edwards

2014

***

Every Monster film has a purpose, a subjective symbolism. The original Godzilla was a metaphor for nuclear attack following Hiroshima, other Monster films since have claimed similar use of metaphor, Cloverfield being one of the most resent, dealing supposedly with the idea of a Terrorist attack following 9/11. Gareth Edwards Godzilla sees two Monsters travel around the world, Godzilla in pursuit to bring balance to the world. Godzilla could be seen as many different things, a force for peace maybe, the UN? Mother nature? I doubt it, but I think the many different places that the action (devastation) takes place is a metaphor for the ever changing ways modern War is being fought. War is no longer something happening far far away. I could be wrong. Godzilla looks more like he did back in the original films, so Edwards has listened to what fans have said following on from 1998's widely criticised version, it could be that he wanted to give the fans what they wanted and having the contrast of various different locations made the film visually more appealing. Again I could be wrong or right on both counts. Either way, it's an enjoyable Monster film. It's not the intelligent drama, sprawling epic or earth shattering romance I thought it might have been since Gareth Edwards directed it but then he's already made that movie, this is just a bit of fun. And fun it most certainly is.

Monsters
Dir: Gareth Edwards
2010
*****

Gareth Edward’s 2010 film Monsters was the breath of fresh air the Monster movie genre really needed. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help but compare it to Cloverfield that came out just two years before. Cloverfield tapped into the found footage sub-genre that was gaining popularity but I didn’t think it brought much to the genre as a whole. I jokingly said that it would have been better if Lars Von Trier had directed it (what film wouldn’t?) and when I first saw Monsters I saw that it wasn’t such a jokey idea after all. While Gareth Edwards is no Von Trier, he clearly has a different vision than most, although it should be said that he also wanted to make a found footage film but changed his mind when Cloverfield beat him to it. Still, he comes from a SFX background but is clearly concerned with much more than visuals and aesthetics, although the film is stunning to look at. Godzilla represented Japan's fear of the atomic bomb, District 9 was about apartheid, and Cloverfield, supposedly, represented the fear of terrorism in the western world post 9/11, although personally I think it is just an excuse to make a monster movie and besides, the remake of War of the Worlds did that much better anyway. Every monster film out there proclaims to be about representing people’s fears of whatever is scariest that decade but Monsters seems to be the exception. You can read so much into it though, at first I thought it was about Western paranoia, fear of the unknown and the fact that when you try to keep things out, you only barricade yourself in. Like I said, you can read a lot into it and after watching the making of, I'm not so sure much of that was the intention. Besides, he seems more interested in the emotional effect of the scenario, it's really a simple love story, another reason why we don't actually see an invasion as such but join the story when the monsters have already settled. The monsters take a back seat in the overall story, the film isn’t really about them. Indeed, the film is much more like Scoot McNairy’s earlier film, In Search of a Midnight Kiss, which Edward’s states as an influence. The monsters are ambiguous, this leaves the audience to decide who the real monster is, is it us or is it them and what are they anyway. A monster doesn’t have to be a giant spider thing, it can be an idea, your subconscious or your own lack of self-confidence. When the monsters appear in the film is very telling. It’s very clever, without being all smarty pants about it. I think the most impressive thing about this film, apart from the fantastic and quite beautiful last scene, is that it cost next to nothing to make and was shot with a crew of eight or so people including cast. That is impressive. Spielberg made Jaws, Gareth Edwards made Monsters, this is the future of film making, or at least, I really hope it is.